Pep Guardiola declared that he “has nothing to say to the Spanish referee,” following the more Champions League controversy where his side sacrificed two key points. The Manchester City boss was excluded before kicking off on the official display of the match, when he won Monaco 5-3 eight years ago in a memorable Champions League encounter.
That particular judge, Spain’s Antonio Mateu Rajoz, has endured several conflicts with Guardiola throughout his career. However, Guardiola glowed before the fixture, but his expression deteriorated dramatically when the slow penalty awarded to Eric Deer caused a furious scene from both technical fields.
In witnessing the confusion, Judge Jesus Gil Manzano was forced to abandon the screen showing replays of a conflicted spotkick, and issued at least one red card to the bench in Monaco for the confusion. Ehring Haaland later admitted, “If someone kicks in the face, it’s going to be a penalty.”
Nevertheless, Guardiola refused to address the controversy, but the Catalan coach mentioned Spanish officials before celebrating the display of his team. “There’s nothing to say about the Spanish judge,” he said. “We played a really good game.
“We’re always trying to create more opportunities and acknowledge that it’s almost happened. They’re making fast players with their physicality so strong, but we’ve created a lot of opportunities given it’s the Champions League.
“Of course we were nearby, but in the end we couldn’t defend the free kick well and admitted the penalty. In football, you have to win the results. If you analyze the game, there were a lot of good things.
“The step-by-step process is better, but there were a lot of opportunities and Phil (Foden) in the first half, and a lot of players played really well. We barely admitted anything.
